When my alarm went off this morning, it was pouring outside. So, I didn’t get up and run. I only have 5 miles scheduled for today, so hopefully I will be able to sneak them in this evening. It looks like I’m going to have to have to get wet at some point this week, though. I just checked the forecast and apparently it is going to be raining until Thursday.

Yesterday evening shaped up nicely. We did a couple of videos for Reagan, then shot some stills (also for R’s hair blog) on the roof with umbrellas. Just when I had resigned to being a homebody for the day, I received a text from some of our friends to hang out at their place. We had a blast hanging out with them and eating some delicious food together. They live about a mile and a half up Broadway from us. Since we had the dog with us, we had to make the journey on foot. MTA doesn’t allow dogs, unless they are in a carrier. Plus, we learned the hard way that the little guy gets car-sick pretty easily.  So, all three of us had a really fun night-walk through the park in the rain, on the way home.

Get ready for another massive pile of photos, hehe. Early Saturday, Reagan and I visited an old plantation (above). The skies were insanely blue and loaded up with little cloud puffs. We thought that the whole thing was pretty cool. But we especially enjoyed hanging out on the quiet cotton dock, where we saw some dolphins goofing off, in the river. Later that day, we took a little chartered sailing trip (below). The skipper ended up being one of Jon’s friends from school.

Captain Greg was as cool and mellow as they come. The conditions were perfect. After the experience, I would have to say that when it comes to sailing, believe the hype.

Below, are a few shots from our jaunt to the beach. Reagan wins the awkward pose award for the shot on the right.

And finally, here is one from the crab bake. Did I mention that we played horseshoes? Reagan got a ringer her first try ever. I’m not making that up.

Thanks again Jon and Kat, for such a fun and relaxing trip. Can’t wait to do it again. We also did this, while we were there.

For some additional shots of Charleston, feel free to click through, here.

We have been having a fantastic time, already.

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We were pretty spoiled, this weekend, with visits from some of our good friends. Friday night, our good friends the Truscotts stopped through on their way moving out west. We are really bummed to see them move so far away from us. They have a new baby, which Piper was extremely curious about (above).

It was really good to see them, and we feel spoiled that they made a stop here on their epic road trip.

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Some of Reagan’s close friends from high school, Terrah and Anthony were also in town over the weekend.

Piper didn’t waste any time snuggling up with Terrah. She was pretty interested in her jewelry, as well. It was really fun to have two such great visits with the PJ, this weekend.

Even though Piper was still running a low grade fever on Sunday, we could tell that for the most part she was in a good mood. Hopefully by next weekend, she will be completely over the little bug that has been irritating her.

Check out the rest of the photos, over here.

Sunday, some of our close friends (and Piper’s friends), the Carters came to hang out with Piper one last time before moving to AZ. We had a blast, as usual. The Carter girls always play so nice with Piper. I love the shot below, of little Penelope entertaining Piper:

Piper was also able to get in a couple of extra snuggles with aunt Jody, before she flew home, Sunday afternoon.

Piper pointing out Lyle the Crocodile:

I think that I’m going to start evaluating my running on a weekly basis, assigning a letter grade each Friday. I came up with that idea, because this week I earned an F-. It is only Friday, but I can already make that assessment, since today was my first run, since last Friday. So, from here on out, I can only improve. My grade will be based on, how many days I run (ideally 6, per week); how many miles, how many gorgeous mornings I wasted by hitting snooze, etc..  I’m hoping to keep the grading thing going at least until after marathon season, this fall.

It has been a rough week, weather-wise, and I’m still battling blisters from my new sneaks. Just the same, I have been reading about all of my friends out west who have been battling through the snow, on their runs. So, I don’t really feel like the weather excuse is holding up so well.

On a positive note, my goal to run 500 miles between 1-22-10 and 1-22-11 seems to be going fairly well.

According to my little Nike Plus chart, I’m almost 34 miles ahead of schedule, as of today. Something to feel good about, I guess. But seriously, the thing that gets me going the most, is all of the positivity from my friends who also run. I think that you guys are so awesome. I know that running isn’t a team sport, in the traditional sense. But, it really motivates me to feel like I’m a part of the running community. Kind of nerdy/sappy, I know.

Anyway, to wrap up this post, here is some entertainment. The shot below is from the Central Park Conservancy 4 mi. race, weekend before last. Look how awesome that guy in the Five Fingers looks. I almost want to get a pair, just so I can look more hard core.

I think that Reagan is making burritos for dinner. Heaven.

We had a pretty great visit with Piper on Sunday morning. Some of our friends, and Piper’s friends came to hang out. Piper was all dressed up cute and had her hair done, when we arrived. She was in a great mood and ready to play. It is so fun to watch her interact with other small children. She is so curious. She spends a lot of the time hanging out with friends just staring and observing everything that they do.

Piper wasn’t stingy with the smiles, either. It is really fun to visit her, and see her pretty much acting how she was before the big scary January incident.

A few more photos, over here.

It was a beautiful day to be in New York, Saturday.  The weather was absolutely perfect. Reagan and I headed upstate early with some of our friends, to climb at this place that we discovered last year. It was Reagan’s first time climbing outside of a gym. She put on a very impressive display of natural ability.

It is kind of crazy how close we are to the tracks. There was kind of a lot of train traffic today, too. We were only on the wall for a few hours and in that span 3 trains came through. As loud as it was, it made for some cool shots. Hehe.

Additional photos over here.

Even though I should have spent the evening picking up trash, planting trees and rescuing puppies, I went to a party, instead. I mentioned earlier this week about my friend Zach’s connex with Kiehl’s. Well, unfortunately Jeff Koons and Pharrell didn’t make it out to the party. But it was still a really good time.  I had a great time chatting it up with Zach, and the other guys shooting the event.

I also ran into/met Joanna, a blog-o-sphere friend for the first time, in person. I always wondered if it would be an awkward situation, when and if I ever met someone in person, who I had previously only come to know the online version of. As it turns out, it wasn’t awkward, at all. I’m sure it helped matters that we have some mutual (real life-o-sphere) friends in common. Reagan and I have both been reading her page, since she featured an item relating out our friends, a little over a year ago. Actually, Reagan was probably reading before that. Anyway, she is just as nice, cute and friendly in real life as you would expect her to be, from reading her work.

Here are a few additional photos from the party:

After our race on Sunday morning, Reagan and I had a very long and relaxing visit with Piper. For some reason, all of the photos that I took, came out looking like Piper was groggy and sad. She probably was groggy. She definitely wasn’t sad though. Just the same, I thought that if she could talk, she probably wouldn’t want me posting those shots of her, not looking like her normal princess self.

After our visit with Piper, we met up with some friends of ours (John and Kat), who are visiting from SC. Reagan knows John from HS. We spend the evening palling around lower Manhattan, since it was so nice out.

Highlights included a jumping contest on the benches at the Battery Park City Promenade.

^–Reagan’s Jump

^—John’s Jump

^—My Jump (shot by Reagan)

Kat also had a pretty impressive jump. But the lighting was throwing off the AF, so it came out all blurry. I’m retarded.  More photos of this outing are here.